The Artist

Kelly’s first few classes went by without much issue. The first day off school every semester rarely started with much work. It always just felt like getting acquainted with your instructor and your surroundings. She started wondering if she should even revisit her locker to get her books for the second half of the day at all, if this was how the day was going to go.

Third period ended, and Kelly dragged herself from her biology class to the lunch hall. She hated carrying too much herself, so she’d stuffed a lunch bag into the outer zipper of her backpack, which she hoped would speed up the process of claiming a table before everything got snatched up. The first day of a semester at lunch was always awkward. Throughout the semester, things feel “designated” as the same people sit in the same places every day. But when the semester starts, none of that has been determined yet. It’s a moment on the first day that truly determines the survival of the fittest. And if you were having to stand in line to pick up lunch from the cafeteria, you may as well have given up your freedom of choice.

Thankfully, Kelly didn’t much need to worry about that scenario.

“Kelly, over here! I got one!”

Looking to her right, Kelly spied Clara sitting at a table with her lunch box and waving frantically to get her attention. The table was positioned in a spot lots of people wanted, directly outside the lunch line exit, and seated immediately in front of the theater stage.

That was another odd design choice at Sunny Peaks High School. The theater stage shared its space with the lunch room itself. And the lunch room was actually just a huge open hall that served as the main entrance to the campus. After school hours when no one was there, it kinda looked like the inside of Grand Central Station. At least, from what Kelly knew of Grand Central Station from movies she’d seen, as she’d never actually physically been to New York before.

During lunch hours, a mix of long folding rectangular tables with attached benches were lined up throughout the middle of the vast concrete-floored room, while at the edges of the room sat several circular tables, which included one of the ones Clara had managed to grab. Kelly had to give it to Clara. The circular tables were the most sought-after because it meant they didn’t have to share it with groups of people they weren’t interested in interacting with.

“Nice job, Clara. Geez, you sure got here fast.”

“I totally lucked out. My last class was just at the top of the stairs right over there.” Clara pointed a little past Kelly to a hallway tucked just behind a pair of vending machines, where a set of stairs to the second floor of the campus would be the first thing you saw when you rounded the corner.

“Well, that sure makes it easy,” Kelly mused as she unzipped her backpack to pull out a brown paper sack with her food. “Hey, Aurora does have the same lunch period as us, doesn’t she?”

“Yeah, but she made the mistake of relying on the food the cafeteria provides instead of bringing her own food. That jerk left me to do the table hunting all by myself.”

Kelly looked over at the line for cafeteria food. When she couldn’t immediately see Aurora in the crowd, she got kind of concerned. That line was ridiculously massive. Of course it was–the school campus was completely overcrowded. How was Aurora supposed to make it in and out of that line and still have time to eat her lunch before the bell rang?

Thankfully, the answer to that question came pretty quickly. Aurora scuttled out from the head of the line balancing a tray of food with a carton of milk. She slid her sneakers across the floor so fast, Kelly was scared she was going to slip on the smoothed concrete floor. Thankfully, her lunch tray came safely to rest at our table.

“I did it!” Aurora shouted, throwing her fist into the air. It felt like any small completed task was a huge victory for her. Kelly thought it was a bit over the top, but at the same time she could only wish she felt as much joy over every little thing as Aurora did.

Clara turned her nose up at the must on Aurora’s plate and curled her upper lip. “Ugh, gross. You really signed up to eat that crap?”

“I slept in late and didn’t have time to make my lunch! So sue me, okay?”

“My mom encouraged me to make my own sandwich last night so I didn’t have to think about it before rushing out the door this morning,” Kelly chimed in.

“Ooh, look at Kelly, bragging about how prepared she is, like she’s better than everybody!” Aurora mockingly sneered.

“What? I didn’t say that!”

Clara cackled. “She’s messing with you, Kelly! Don’t take this cheeseball so seriously.”

As Clara and Aurora laughed between each other, it did sort of click in Kelly’s mind for the first time that she really was probably the most serious member of the trio. She might not have been exactly like them, but she was grateful that they included her in the things they were doing.

As Aurora picked up a spoonful of what appeared to be mashed potatoes and Clara slipped a turkey and ham sandwich out from a plastic zipper bag, Aurora started probing about their big first day at Sunny Peaks.

“So what’s band like? Did you get your instruments?”

“Yeah, Mr. Park seems kinda fun. He’s big and loud!” Big and loud definitely seemed like the type of personality somebody like Aurora would really like. “He assigned our instruments, but we don’t get to start to take them home until the end of the week.”

“Bummer, I really wanted to see you try to lug a saxophone onto a bus.”

“Nah, Aurora’s probably fine carrying her sax home. What’s really gonna be funny is watching her try and practice during marching band season.” Clara leaned over and stuck an elbow into Aurora’s ribs. “Watching you try to play an instrument and walk at the same time is gonna be comedy gold.”

Kelly laughed. “I don’t envy you guys when it comes to marching. Thank God nobody in choir has to sing and march at the same time.”

“Don’t get cocky just because you picked the musical class on easy mode!” Aurora whined.

“Hey, who said choir is easy? This is exactly why you ended up in junior varsity instead of varsity.”

“What did you say!? You just wait and see! It’s still only the first semester! I’ll catch up to you in varsity, just watch!”

Kelly admired Aurora’s enthusiasm. Even if she wasn’t incredibly skilled at everything she tried, she was very upbeat about all of it. Kelly wasn’t sure she had ever been that passionate about anything she did. Even the piano she’d been playing for all these years didn’t really give her a sense of excitement or satisfaction anymore.

“Hey, screw all this talk about school and stuff,” Clara interjected. “I told you I had some sketches to show you guys, right?”

Kelly smiled, and Aurora practically leapt out of her chair. “Yeah! I’ve been waiting all summer to see what you’d do!”

Clara grinned, extremely proud of herself, and pulled her sketchbook out from under her seat. “All right, check these out.”

Clara flipped through a few pages and plopped the sketchbook down on the table facing her friends. Aurora and Kelly gasped and smiled. There were several pages of a character Clara had been developing for a while now. It was a young woman who definitely looked a lot like her artist, but with some gorgeous fantasy twists. Longer, wavy auburn hair, tattoos on her arms, pointy elf ears. The character wore a mini skirt and a crop top with a small window for the audience to catch a glimpse of cleavage. And on her back were large, beautiful snow white wings. The artistic style was very similar to that of Japanese comics and cartoons, with angular facial features around the nose, jaw, and chin, as well as big, narrow, watery eyes that suggested this character meant business. Kelly couldn’t much say she was ever interested in TV shows or movies that used that art style, but she also couldn’t ignore that Clara was clearly very good at what she was creating. Across several pages, this character was drawn in unique floaty poses, showing an air that told the viewer, “I’m ready to fight if I have to,” but also suggested the character was sensitive and just trying to make it to the other side of something in her life.

One drawing featured the character portrayed from behind, sitting naked on the ground, propping herself up with one hand, the other hand pressed to her chest. You could see the girl’s face from one side, looking terribly sad, as rain fell from the sky. Clara pointed at this one and told them that, yes, it was nudity, but it was tasteful nudity. She said it so proudly and smugly, Kelly wondered if she didn’t just use the word “tasteful” to simply explain away that she wanted to draw somebody naked. But still, even for as squeamish as Kelly could be around nudity, she thought Clara’s work here was actually quite beautiful.

“So what’s her name?” Aurora enthusiastically pressed Clara for more information.

Clara kinda lightly shrugged in response. “Meh, I haven’t really settled on a name for her yet. She’s just somebody I feel really close to.”

“You mean she’s basically you, right?” Kelly didn’t mince words. She wasn’t trying to be rude or anything, but after she said it, she wondered if that had been a little too direct.

“Haha, maybe!” Kelly didn’t expect Clara would confirm it like that. “Maybe she’s the kind of person that I see in myself, but also the kind of person that I wish I could be. Something like that! I’m still figuring it out.”

“Do you have any plans for what you want to do with her?”

“Nah, nothing that deep yet. Right now I’m just drawing whatever comes to mind, whenever I have inspiration to do it.”

“Well, that settles it! Now you really have to draw me!” Aurora put her hands on the table and pushed herself up into Clara’s face. “You’re gonna do it, right?”

“Okay, okay, God! You’re so demanding, do you know that?”

Aurora smiled, not only knowing that’s exactly what she’s like, but having no shame in it either. “I’m only demanding because I already know it’s gonna be the best thing ever.” Aurora turned to face Kelly. “Hey, you should ask her to draw you, too!”

Kelly pulled back a little in surprise. “Me? Oh, I don’t know. Nothing about the kind of person I am would look good on paper. I mean, just look at me.” She motioned to herself, indicating her long flat brown hair, plain red T-shirt, jeans, high tops, and a boring denim jacket. “I’m just kinda dull.”

Clara seemed to take this as a challenge. “Well, I might be able to figure something out. We can talk more about what to do with you later. Are you two gonna be online tonight?”

To the other two girls, the answer to that question almost seemed like a no-brainer.

“Hah, what do you think? Of course we are! Aren’t we always?” Aurora said, sitting back down in her chair.

“Perfect. Get on messenger when you get home, both of you. We’ll talk about what you want your drawings to look like. Especially you, Kelly. It may take some figuring out, but if anybody’s gonna make you look freaking cool, it’s gonna be me.”